Atlanta Review/ Texas Preview

In Atlanta, Jimmie Johnson was 7th with 7 laps to go. He finished 2nd to Carl Edwards. In victory lane the celebration seemed to fizzle a bit when Edwards was asked if he knew who finished second, he looked at the scoring pylon and uttered a disappointing "Are you kidding me?!" followed by an all too telling "Man, you've rained on my parade all day. I could have done without that one. ... Man, Jimmie is magic."
He did everything he needed to, he went out and drove hard and won the race but only gained a mere 15 points of leader Jimmie Johnson. Earlier in the day Johnson had a pit road speeding penalty, but through the grace of driving and the caution falling to give him his laps back, it was only a matter of time. I've seen and heard people say "it's Jimmie's year" - evidently he moves fast enough he doesn't notice when one year ends and the next begins. The question that will be looming across Daytona in February is 'Will Jimmie Johnson get an unprecedented fourth cup title?'. Cale Yarborough, one of the toughest fiercest competitors this sport has ever been graced by didn't do that, but Jimmie is part of this new era of drivers, in a new era of sport. Jimmie Johnson will have more wins and more Championships than Jeff Gordon by the end of his career, there is little question in my mind about that. He in all honesty has a good 15 years of racing left in him. He can achieve 90 career wins if he averages seasons like these last few, needing just under 6 wins a season to get to 90 before he's age 48. I wanted to be optimistic, I wanted to not believe the media, and yet believe the other half, but the obvious has risen about. Jimmie Johnson, unless a catastrophic event happens in the next 3 races, will be the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion, and will be only the second driver in the history of NASCAR to win 3 consecutive championships. His greatest chance at failure comes this week (today) at Texas Motorspeedway, my favorite track. He's won there though, but this is a great chance for Carl Edwards to really gain some ground.

On to the classification system! [ I need a good name for this section for 2009, send any ideas to me]

2008 Presumptive Champion: Jimmie Johnson - alright, pilgrim, who's gunna stop him now?
2008 May be able to pull out some kind of miracle: Carl Edwards
2008 "Also Rans" : Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.

Following the race at Homestead-Miami I will have a short recap of the race and to fill the offseason I have a few ideas, first of all a season recap, recalling my favorite moments of the year, a Championship banquet review, any other thoughts that enter my head and for about 4 weeks a series of reviews for each team's 2008 performance any changes for the 2009 season and how I think they will fare next season. I will also discuss the owners championship, rookies and any other hot topics that arise in the next weeks. Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote!